Final published version
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Against and For China’s Ecological Civilisation
T2 - Economising the Bios or “Life-ising” Transition?
AU - Tyfield, David
AU - Rodriguez, Fabricio
PY - 2022/11/23
Y1 - 2022/11/23
N2 - As the climate crisis intensifies, overlapping with the emergence of a lethal virus, and a planet poisoning economy, questions regarding thinking-and-doing transition become increasingly urgent. In this article, we explore the concept of “ecological civilisation” (EcoCiv) as a productive conjunction of Chinese concepts and ways of thinking that precede China’s encounter with Western modernity, and their re-reading and revision from a post-Western modernity lens. China’s role in any possible global transition to sustainability is unquestionably central – yet curiously neglected in transition studies. At the same time the official project of EcoCiv is in fact emerging as the very opposite of its proclaimed spirit. The article offers a reconceptualisation of shengtai wenming (ecological civilisation) as a paradigm shift to life-ising the economy (and society) instead of economising life. From this altered perspective, the article presents and discusses preliminary evidence of a largely neglected, but potentially significant, bottom-up, extra-state dynamism in contemporary China that entails both elements and principles for a genuinely ecological, trans-modern civilisation. It concludes with reflections on the resulting change in agenda, not least for transition studies, outlining a set of four principles of doing shengtai wenming – i.e. of life-ising transition.
AB - As the climate crisis intensifies, overlapping with the emergence of a lethal virus, and a planet poisoning economy, questions regarding thinking-and-doing transition become increasingly urgent. In this article, we explore the concept of “ecological civilisation” (EcoCiv) as a productive conjunction of Chinese concepts and ways of thinking that precede China’s encounter with Western modernity, and their re-reading and revision from a post-Western modernity lens. China’s role in any possible global transition to sustainability is unquestionably central – yet curiously neglected in transition studies. At the same time the official project of EcoCiv is in fact emerging as the very opposite of its proclaimed spirit. The article offers a reconceptualisation of shengtai wenming (ecological civilisation) as a paradigm shift to life-ising the economy (and society) instead of economising life. From this altered perspective, the article presents and discusses preliminary evidence of a largely neglected, but potentially significant, bottom-up, extra-state dynamism in contemporary China that entails both elements and principles for a genuinely ecological, trans-modern civilisation. It concludes with reflections on the resulting change in agenda, not least for transition studies, outlining a set of four principles of doing shengtai wenming – i.e. of life-ising transition.
KW - China
KW - shengtai wenming
KW - ecological civilisation
KW - trans-modernity
KW - transition
KW - life-ising
KW - sustainability
U2 - 10.11588/iqas.2022.3.15525
DO - 10.11588/iqas.2022.3.15525
M3 - Journal article
VL - 53
SP - 441
EP - 469
JO - International Quarterly of Asian Studies
JF - International Quarterly of Asian Studies
IS - 3
ER -